Monday, October 12, 2015

Harvest Monday - October 12, 2015

Firstly - Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians out there! This is one of my favourite holidays. Our family normally has a big dinner on Sunday but this year things are much more low key as my Dad is in the hospital, so we will be having a small, rather simple dinner this evening instead. But even when times are tough and things don't go our way, we all still have so much to be thankful for, don't we?

Now on to the harvests - this week I harvested my first ever butternut squash:

Waltham Butternut Squash

There are still 3 left in the bed which need a bit more toughening up so these will likely stay there until we have our first frost warning.

Another basket of tomatoes was harvested together with the only tromboncino squash this year:

Tromboncino Squash and Tomatoes

The trombonico was a late planting – I simply forgot to sow them in the rush to get the garden on track when we returned from our holiday in April. By the time I remembered, they were about a month or so behind. But as we veggie gardeners know, one is better than none, so this guy will definitely be savoured…not that this will take any effort as tromboncino is my absolute favourite when it comes to summer squash.

Since my update last week, I ended up pulling up the Amish Paste & Sungold vines as many of the tomatoes showed blight, even at the green stage. The Juliet and Mountain Magic are still hanging in there but I am now getting anxious to clean up the bed, so I will be pulling these by the end of the week.

A big basket of Anaheim peppers were harvested:

Anaheim Peppers

These were roasted, skinned, seeded & individually frozen. I also harvested a variety of other peppers including Stocky Red Roasters, Padron, Jimmy Nardello & Hungarian Wax:

Stocky Red Roasters, Jimmy Nardello, Padron & Hungarian Wax

A few more salad turnips were pulled – I think there are only 3 left in the bed now:

White Lady Turnips

And the trickle of yummy raspberries continues:

From plate to mouth in 10 seconds flat ;)

The raspberry harvest is so small that I’m not weighing them, but I am roughly keeping track of how many I harvest – just so that I have some sort of comparison to next year.

And lastly, I harvested a basket of Chinese greens from the bed that is having cabbage worm issues:

From left to right:
Ching Chang, Komatsuna and Green Fortune

I harvested all of the baby choy heads and left the joi choi which had much less damage. I also did another once over for those pesky caterpillars. Hopefully I found them all and the brassicas that are left will not turn to Swiss cheese.

As a side note I'm also having an issue with aphids this fall - I haven't had this problem in the past other than with the Mei Qing choi last summer - perhaps they are enjoying the mild temps? Unfortunately, I still see cabbage butterflies flying around so I can't take the netting off the beds which is likely making things worse as natural predators like ladybugs are also kept out.

Haha, your butternuts are great Margaret. My big 'un was pure luck. It's a bit of a weird shape as well so will be interesting to cut open. You have a very good variety of harvests too, lovely. I'm surprised you managed to put your rasps on a plate before eating! All the best to your dad.

Happy Thanksgiving! My favorite holiday too. Hope next year you can have your traditional big dinner--with your own, good-looking squash! I like to see all your pretty peppers, and the Asian greens look great despite your bug problems.

I am impressed with your Stocky Red Roasting Peppers. I need to add these to my list of crops for consideration. Kevin would love these. It looks like you had a very nice harvest of Chinese greens too even with the caterpillar issues. It IS strange to be dealing with pests so late. Usually fall is cool enough to prevent most of them. I found some tomato hornworms on my dying plants this week. I have never seen them this late.

Happy Thanksgiving to you! Those Asian greens do look good, despite bug issues. Aphids are sometimes a problem here in fall, especially in cold frames or under row covers. It seems to favor their population explosion.

I've made a note of that for next year, although by the end of summer I do tend to get a bit lax about things like that. I have a feeling that this will change, however, as I get a bit more organized in the garden.

Happy Thanksgiving Margaret! I hope you had a happy day and that your father is on the mend. Your garden is still producing nicely. I planted my Butternut too late this year. They are such a great winter Squash. As for your dahlia question, that's a good one! I think I would lean toward keeping the tubers in storage at this point and seeing if you can winter them over that way. That is what I would try but I must admit I have never kept a tuber in storage for a full year without planting, so this is just a guess!

Thanks Lexa! I will put them in my cold cellar where it doesn't get much above freezing and it stays a bit more humid than our dry inside air - hopefully they keep ok! After all of my issues with squash, I am definitely loving my butternuts - can't wait until they cure & so that I can cook one up!

Happy Thanksgiving. I'm sorry to hear your dad's in hospital, I wish him a swift recovery and hope he's home with you soon. You're still getting some great harvests and those butternut squash look fantastic.

Thank you Jo - they are taking good care of my dad at the hospital, but he is in his 80's and we are not sure how this will turn out at this stage. I'm very happy with the butternuts - hopefully they taste as good as they look!

Thanks Jenny - I didn't get to cook the squash for Thanksgiving as I heard they should cure for a bit in a nice warm spot (our kitchen for the time being) so that they sweeten up. I'll definitely be saving one for our Christmas dinner, though!

Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that your dad will soon be on the mend. We have had more cabbage white butterflies than any other type of butterfly this year. We have only just started to see the other species which is a bit late in the year really.

Thanks Sue - Yes, there definitely have been a lot of cabbage whites this year and, as you say, far more than any other type. I guess once they know where to find a good meal, they tend to stick around!

Happy Thanksgiving! Your veggies all look so nice! Congrats on your butternut squash. I have new seeds I will try next year and see how they do for me. The regular ones never have done much here for me. I ordered some that are mmm well wrinkled to try. I grow bunching onions too yes, you left a comment saying you grew those. :O)I agree how many names can one vegetable have, LOL, I am learning a lot!I have my rows all set up for winter growing if it EVER cools off here. We have been hitting 97 still sighhhh story of my life in Texas. But we got two of our rows done with arches for low tunnels and have the frost blankets. I have my winter seeds so I am ready to go. But I am afraid to try to start anything in this heat.... so I am waiting...

Thanks Texan! The learning never stops, does it? I guess that's one of the reasons I love gardening so much. I have to get the row covers out today as well - I'm hoping to keep my lettuce and Chinese greens going for a little while anyhow. The only thing we sow now is the garlic, which should be going in this week...if I can find the time.

So in complete contrast to your weather, we are now cooling down a lot. Our first frost will likely be this Saturday & I have now officially transitioned to long sleeve shirts ;)

Sounds like you are having lots of issues with insect pests this Autumn. I have grown Oriental Brassicas a few times and I found that the slugs like them more than anything else. Maybe to them they seem as exotic as going out for a Chinese meal can seem for us!

Every year it seems as if the major pests are bit different - I suppose that each of them prefer a different type of weather. We had a very wet summer last year and I had huge slug issues. They LOVED the Mei Qing choy, so you may very well be right - they probably took one bite and then called all their friends over ;)

Thanks Shaheen - harvesting the winter squash was definitely a highlight this fall. I've never had good luck with squash so was thrilled that I ended up with a few butternuts to enjoy over the coming months. Hopefully you find a few hiding out in your garden!

Re your comment on my blog about chillis - the first solid food our daughters ate was curried dhal! Two of our granddaughters are already keen on curry, at 6 and 3 years old. There is hope for you yet!

How lucky you are - my kids wouldn't have touched a curry at 3 years old. They do now love dhal, especially my son, but only if I make it as I'll omit the chillies. The restaurant curries are still much too spicy...be we are working on it!

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